Catch Me If You Can
by AfterShockk
Summary: Wanted for fraud, Naruto is being pursued by Sasuke, a detective. So how is Sakura caught in the middle? It turns out to be much more than fraud. All of the Konoha crew is twisted in this modern AU. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Catch Me If You Can

Wanted for fraud, Naruto is being pursued by Sasuke, a detective. So how is Sakura caught in the middle? All of the Konoha crew is twisted in this modern AU. R&R!

* * *

1

"Thank you ." The woman said to the man with blonde hair and vibrant blue eyes. He stood about 6'2 and had the most charming smile on his face. He was a charmer indeed, everything about him just exuded confidence and charm and made women swoon nearly everywhere he went.

smiled just enough that his teeth were showing and extended his hand and accepted the three hundred dollars he withdrew from "his" account. After smoothly removing the money from the woman's hand, Naruto bowed slight and pulled the back of her hand to his mouth and placed a soft kiss on it. He looked up to see her smiling and smirked.

"You're welcome, Suki." He replied after a moment. He straightened his back, turned on his heels, and left the bank. He was dressed in a dapper three-piece suit complete with a pair of expensive Gucci sunglasses. As he stepped outside he looked left and right then deployed his sunglasses to combat the bright sun.

"Damn, it's a good day." Naruto said loud enough for himself to hear and began to walk down the busy sidewalk to his left. And with that, Naruto disappeared with the rest of Konoha population.

* * *

Across town, the police department's main briefing room was dark as the only thing on was a projector displaying information on the increase in fraudulent charges in the area. The room was filled with Uchiha men. Around the table in no order, one would look to see Fugaku, Itachi, Shisui, Sasuke, Madara, and Obito Uchiha sitting at the oblong table.

With Madara being the police captain, and Fugaku being the police lieutenant leaving the rest of men as the elite detectives on the force. This presentation is presented by the two heads of the detective force, Madara, and Fugaku. The younger men in the room watched intensely as the list of fifteen suspect's names popped up on the screen. Sasuke squinted at the list, his vision was great, but one name stood out to him: "Naruto Uzumaki".

 _"Tch. That Dobe? He couldn't fix a straw if it was bent."_ Sasuke thought to himself.

Sitting near the back of the room, Sasuke caught his brother glancing at him. It was a warning to pay attention. All the Uchiha's had this silent language they communicated with their eyes. It was an asset, but also creepy to those who didn't get it.

"-I'm assigning a select few of these criminals to you all. Itachi, I'm giving you Temari Subaku. Shishui; Hinata Hyuuga. Obito; Neji Hyuuga. Sasuke; Naruto Uzumaki." Boomed Madara while Fugaku nodded with his eyes closed.

 _"Naruto? This should be a piece of cake. Those other suspects would be harder."_ Sasuke thought to himself. He did feel a little jealous though. The other suspects were harder. He was always being given the easier assignments in comparison to his cohort. They were more senior, but he still a good detective- junior detective to be technical. He let out a little sigh to himself as the meeting was adjourned and the lights came on.

Sasuke gathered his files in front of him stood and stretched then left the room. He went back to his cubicle in the massive open space that was called the bullpen. His cubical was left of Itachi's and right of Shisui's. He was in the middle because his father felt having experienced detectives in the immediate vicinity would be beneficial to the three-month-old detective.

 _"Naruto….Naruto…I guess the first thing is the find out where he lives. Canvas that for a little and then monitor his movements? That is IF I get permission from lieutenant Uchiha."_ Sasuke thought to himself. He logged onto his desktop computer and began to look up all the information in the system on Naruto Uzumaki.

* * *

"Finally!" Sakura exclaimed. Her pink hair flaring in the wind as she sat at an outside bistro awaiting her one of the two best friends, Naruto Uzumaki, to arrive.

"I was just about to leave before everyone thought I was a loser and got stood up." She said rising to hug him. Naruto laughed in response. She was pretty funny when she had every right to be mad.

"How was work, Sakura?" He asked now sitting from their hug.

"Decent, I saw three children today with the flu. I really felt bad for them." Sakura said with a little huff of a sigh. She worked at the hospital as a physician, her residency was still ongoing. She was specializing as a hospitalist physician so she gets to float around the hospital.

"Sounds exciting?" Naruto said with a quizzical look on his face. He didn't find that interesting.

"Well, that's awfully judgmental from the man who's an auto mechanic." Sakura poked playfully. She now looked at his appearance, he was in a suit? That's not typical of a mechanic. Naruto must have seen her face because he was already building an excuse for his atypical attire.

"Speaking of which" Sakura began "Where do you work? The Royal Palace? Geeze! That's rather, extravagant for a run-of-the-mill auto tech." She asked one eyebrow raised.

Coolly, as to dismiss her potential concern, Naruto skillfully added: "I was at a wedding earlier today and just wanted to look good for once." Not a word of truth was in that sentence, but he knew she'd buy it. She had been since they became friends when he first moved here four years ago. "Besides, you know you'd like some eye candy in your life." He joked. He did look quite good in the suit. He then began to tell her intricate details of this made-up wedding for some made-up people. Naruto's skill with lying was extraordinarily impressive. He was able to spin a web of lies AND remember his lies with missing a beat. Well, he was profession criminal, it's a skill that's mandatory for the job.

Sakura sat across from him listening intently to his account of his day. She glanced down at her watch to see it was a stroke past 4 pm, her next duty shift began in thirty minutes and the hospital was across town!

"Ah!" She exclaimed. "Naruto, I love ya man, but I gotta get to work! You were so late, I had missed of my break!"

She scurried to grab all of her stuff planted a kiss on Naruto's cheek and took off in her three-inch heels down the sidewalk to work. Her recognizable pink hair disappearing on the rather busy sidewalk. Naruto shrugged and began to walk away from the table when he bumped into a woman. She had long luxurious blonde hair and light blue eyes. She dropped her tray of glasses. They fell to the ground with a shattering sound drawing the attention of the of fellow patrons.

"Oh shoot!" She exclaimed.

"No, It's my fault darling." Naruto said calmly. She looked up to meet his gaze. He was dreamy and he smiled at her. She didn't know why she was blushing, but this good-looking man was now picking up the bits of glass off the ground before she could process what was happening. Handing her back the tray of now broken glass, he took her hand, kissed its back and placed a piece of paper in her hands and was swiftly walking down the street.

She blinked a few times to orient herself to reality again. " _Had that man the that? So publicly? In front of everyone?"_ Her cheeks were burning.

She spun around and headed back to the kitchen when she remembered there was a piece of paper in her hands. She unfolded it to see a phone number and name written "554-555-5565, Lee Hiku….XO". She smiled.

Meanwhile, Sakura had made it back to work, grabbed a granola bar, and changed into her scrubs and some sensible shoes. Placing her stethoscope around her neck, name tag on the top right side of her scrub top, and donning her white lab coat she walked out onto the floor feeling the effects of her lack of sleep.

In her pocket, her pager went off alerting of a code-blue on one of her patients. She sighed and jogged to the elevator to assist with her case. _"This is the life I chose,"_ she thought to herself as she arrived at the room. She took a deep breath and began to work.

* * *

Sasuke was waiting outside the last known address for Naruto Uzumaki. It was on the poor side of town. Sasuke sat in his undercover police SUV and glared at the dilapidated apartment complex building with an observant eye. It was a single-story domicile with all three doors of entry broken down and looked abandoned. He felt his hip for his sidearm, grabbed his flashlight, and sighed and left the vehicle to go inspect. He knew Naruto didn't live here anymore. It became clear by the time he entered the shanty house to see three homeless men sitting on the floor shocked to see an officer in their "home".

He shined his flashlight on the men who began to scurry away he ran to intercept them only cornering one as the others escaped through the back of the apartment.

"Hey!" He shouted. They scattered

"HEY!" He yelled louder. "KPD, KPD! Stay where you are!" He stated.

The man stood still and after a moment Sasuke spoke again.

"I just need to ask you some questions about the building, ok? You're not under arrest!" The man let out a sigh let his guard down a little, but Sasuke knew he would more than likely try to make a run for it.

"What do you want ?" The man joked defensively.

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke replied, "How long has the building been abandoned?"

The gave a surprised look then narrowed his eyes "Why?"

"That's my business, not yours."

"Well, what's in it for me?"

"You get to stay here," Sasuke replied dryly.

"Hmm, you're a jerk aren't you?"

"….I can arrest you for obstructing justice. Keep playing."

"About a year, man. But those other guys said that they've been here for the past five years, I don't know their names, but-"

Sasuke stopped listening as he remembered the case file said Naruto just moved into this apartment six months ago.

"Hey man!" the stranger said jarring Sasuke from his thoughts. "Am I still going to get arrested? I told you everything I know, honest."

Sasuke knew the man was not telling him _everything_ he knew, he was not being 100% honest.

"No, I'm not arresting you….today."

"Aw man, what do you mean 'not today'?" the man said paraphrasing Sasuke words.

Still shining his flashlight in the man's eyes, he reached into his pocket and withdrew his business card. "You call me the moment you have any more information you want to give, ok?"

Slowly extending his hand to take the card, the man obliged. "You never told me what I should call you with information about?"

"A man named Naruto Uzumaki."

The man's eyes widened. Sasuke took that as a sign of recognition of the name. This piqued Sasuke's interest.

"You know him?" He asked

"Nope never heard of him." The man lied.

Sasuke saw right through him. He didn't want to man to withhold any more information, but he couldn't pressure him. Sure, he could arrest him and bring him back to the station, hold him for 72 hours, and interrogate the crap out of him, but he chose not to. He needed the man's cooperation, not fear.

"I'll be in the area for the next few weeks if you find out anything," Sasuke said deactivating his flashlight. He replaced it in its holster and began to leave the place. The sun was still shining when he reached the to entryway. He looked up to see a few birds flying by and then down to see kids drawing with chalk on the sidewalk. He put on his sunglasses and walked over to his car, started it, and drove off. Naruto wasn't as dumb as he thought, huh?

1-1


	2. Chapter 2

2

Naruto awoke to find he was not in bed, but he couldn't recognize who's bed it was. His memory came flooding back to him. _"Ah yes! Ino's house"_ That was the name of the girl he bedded last night, the girl from the bistro. She was still asleep when he awoke. Naruto expertly left her bed without disturbing her and found his way down the stairs with his clothing gathered in his hands. The suit was wrinkled but usable, however, this was not Naruto's style to be seen in anything that wasn't in excellent condition or brand new looking. He looked around until he saw the laundry room. He entered and looking for men's clothing. He only knew to look for men's clothing because of the many pictures of her and some man in military fatigues on. _"Her husband"_ he reasoned _"Must be deployed?"_ Naruto knew he'd find men's clothing in the laundry room because he was observant. You can't steal people's identity for a living and **not** be observant.

He found what he was looking for a clean men's suit. He quickly switched one suit for another and then made his way over to her purse. He inspected its position and the look of things in it before he rummaged through it. He preferred to leave things as they were when he robbed people. It was a way of being polite in his mind. He took cash, two of her three credit cards, and a photo of a kid hugging a dog. He flipped the wallet-sized photo over to see "Nephew Daki, hugging dog Siddo" he smiled at the cute image and pocketed that. It would come in handy. Just as was about to leave, he canvased the lower floor one more time before he heard her speak. Gently, he opened the front door and left not even bothering to say goodbye. This was the life Naruto had chosen.

* * *

Sasuke spent the rest of yesterday searching for any and all instances of fraudulent charges with men matching Naruto's description. Surprisingly, there were about three men in the city limits that met that description. Two of them in jail. So Sasuke's search went rather quickly when he passed that hump. He tracked down all of "Naruto's" suspected fraud cases. He saw purchases from various individuals all in a three-mile radius. The only way he knew they were fraudulent was they actual owners of their credits cards reported them as fraudulent and they were expensive. Really expensive. Apparently, Naruto had good taste.

He'd purchase from Gucci, Calvin Klien, Rolex, Fendi and more. Sasuke also took note of cash withdrawals. He noted that with every purchase Naruto requested cash back of varying amounts. Sasuke surmised Naruto had a pretty impressive stack of cash hidden somewhere as most fraud artists do. Based on the amount withdrawn, Sasuke estimated about 22k at least in cash is hidden somewhere. He also saw that the cards stolen were not used any longer than four days in a row then another person would file for fraud. He was smart. He was smarter than Sasuke gave him credit for.

Before this train of thought continued, his phone vibrated, he got a text from his fiancé, Sakura. She was texting to say she was working late tonight and not to wait up. He smiled at the text. She was his everything. They had made an agreement not to discuss their work with each other as both required anonymity to avoid spewing information that could identify whom they were discussing.

He clicked reply and wrote _"I completely understand, I am working late too. We'll meet up tomorrow for dinner."_ And sent it. He needed to get to the bottom of this, but he was nowhere near breaking the surface.

The next day came with Sasuke hearing a loud smack of papers on a desk next to him. _"My brother, Itachi, the one and only."_ Sasuke sat up slowly looking at Itachi then narrowing his eyes to glare intensely at the man. Itachi was a man of few words, he communicates more with his eyes than anything else.

"Good morning to you too, brother." Sasuke said groggily. He fell asleep at work again. He looked around to see only himself and Itachi were the only ones in the office at the moment.

He looked back over to see Itachi giving him a look of inquiry. Sasuke knew what he meant with this look.

 _"Did you find anything from staying the night here?"_

"No." Sasuke replied out loud answering Itachi's question.

Itachi chuckled and continued to talk with his eyes raising one eyebrow _"Hope you told Sakura"_ his eyes said

"Yes, I told her. She was working late too."

Finally opening his mouth, Itachi spoke. "We have a briefing again today. Go get cleaned up."

Now it was Sasuke's turn to talk with his eyes. _"Ugh, again? We just had one literally yesterday."_

"Yeah, I know" replied Itachi out loud, "but I'm sure it has to be important for one to be called so soon."

Reluctantly, Sasuke followed his older brother's command and dispatched himself to the locker room for a shower and a shave. It was going to be a hell of a day.

After cleaning himself up, he returned to see everyone in the briefing room awaiting his arrival. He walked in, took his seat, pulled out his files and looked up to see everyone looking at him.

"Good morning, I apologize for my tardiness. Won't happen again." Sasuke said flatly. Everyone except Itachi nodded. Itachi instead gave him another look to communicate _"Silly little brother."_

The meeting began with Madara saying "There has been another report of fraud. It came in only 40 minutes ago." This piqued Sasuke's interest. He threw up an eyebrow.

"The suspect's description matches that of one Naruto Uzumaki." Madara added. All eyes fell on Sasuke as this was _his_ case. "To add to that he stole a very nice car too. A black Mercedes-Benz S-Class. It is very distinctive and equally expensive."

Clearing his throat, Sasuke spoke. "I'm still investing, as I only received this assignment yesterday, but I will add haste in my plans to apprehend him."

"Good. I expect results soon." Fugaku chimed in.

"Next" Madara continued "Hinata and Neji Hyuuga have stepped up their game. You can now add armed robbery to their list of charges."

Obito and Shisui exchanged a glance. These were their suspects that they were responsible for catching.

"The husband and wife duo is now becoming more like Bonnie & Clyde. They robbed a bank in south Konoha at gunpoint about one hour ago. The word on the street from one of my confidential informants is that they're gearing up to make a big move." Madara added annoyed. "I want them found before they create any more mess it this town. Luckily, they didn't kill anyone, but six people were injured in the crime."

Sasuke exchanged a look with Itachi. Itachi, who isn't much of a talker spoke: "Would you like me to assist with the case, Captain?"

"Yes, Temari has been apprehended so you will move to Shisui and Obito's investigations. But I also want you to avail yourself to our junior detective should he need help any further. The lieutenant and I will make a statement to the press about our progress tonight around 7 pm so have thorough progress reports completed and on my desk by five." Fugaku only nodded to agree with Madara.

Sasuke looked at his wristwatch. It was7:24 am, he had less than twelve hours to find something meaningful. Dinner with Sakura may not happen tonight after all.

* * *

Sakura smiled at the text she got from her husband to be. He was always so understanding to her. She couldn't imagine a day without him. He was her everything. She laid down in the employee lounge room looking at the ceiling. She was on call and wasn't needed at the moment so she told the nurses she'd be taking a nap in the meanwhile.

At 7:30 am she was awoken with a call from Naruto. She groaned and tried her best to sound awake.

"This is ."

"What's up doc? You wanna grab breakfast? Promise I'll be there and I'll treat." He said casually.

"Naruto, it's not even 9 am yet, why are you calling me so early?"

"Cause you told me to three days ago If you didn't call me."

Sakura sat up and looked at the date. "Crap!" she cried, "I was supposed to go get Sasuke's birthday gift this morning! I need to go."

"Wait wait wait! Slow down there. I'll go with you we can get food after we get the gift. I'm about ten minutes away from the hospital. Ok? You just get ready now." He calmly said.

She let out a breath of relief. "Thanks, Naruto but how did you know I was at the hospital?"

"You always answer the phone as ' ' when you're at the hospital." He said while laughing.

"Ugh, you suck! Ok, I'll get ready." She hung up the phone and went to get ready.

Before long, she was leaving the hospital and getting into Naruto's car. It was a black Mercedes S-Class S63 AMG.

 _"He got ANOTHER car,"_ she thought _"Damn, he gets paid way better than I or Sasuke do!"_ after a moment she voiced her thoughts as he drove off

"You got another car Naruto? You might as well get rid of your apartment and live in these expensive ass cars you keep getting!" She said laughing.

For a millisecond Naruto tensed up before he spoke: "You're crazy, I've always had this car, I just never drive it."

Sakura thought to herself _"I'm not the best with cars, but I'm not dumb. Being observant is a part of my job. It's a critical component. Does he really think he's fooling-. No, no Sakura. He had no reason to lie. Just keep it moving, girl."_ She shrugged it off.

Sakura gave him directions to the jewelry store where she was going to buy Sasuke a new wristwatch. He collected them and since his birthday was in three days she wanted to do this ahead of time before her schedule got too hectic.

"Hello ." She said. He smiled and replied to her

"Hello to you my dear doctor." He came out from behind the counter and hugged her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naruto eyeing something. She didn't pay it any mind.

"What can I do for you honey bunch? Ah!" The older man said, "That slick watch for Sasuke, right?"

"Yes sir, that's why I'm here."

"You sure I cannot talk you into getting a pair of matching cuff links too?" He tried

"No, no, you cannot." She replied playfully.

"Well ok," He said shrugging "And I said to call me Hiruzen, sounds like I'm 70. I'm only 68!" he said loudly as he laughed. Sakura too joined in on that laugh.

She noticed only she and Hiruzen were the only ones talking when she looked over to see Naruto looking at the TV. The sound was off, but she was reading the captions wondering why Naruto was so enthralled in the news. Personally, she always turns it off and so does he. It's usually heavily biased for one reason or another, but this was different. He was watching those captions as if his life depended on it.

* * *

Naruto watched intensely as he read about the increase in fraud in Konoha. The captions told him that there was going to be a press conference, later on, tonight to discuss all of these things. He was reading the list of suspect's names when he saw the first park of his first name appear on the screen. "Nar-" was written, but before could be displayed, he smoothly changed the channel to ESPN to see the Sports Center.

 _"Damn."_ Was the only thought going through the blonde man's head. He couldn't be on the list of suspects already, could he? The police in this town are extremely fast then. In the last town, he got away with this same scheme for YEARS before anyone even knew his real name. He felt a little panicked. He knew that his name was probably going to be said at this press conference and then he'd be exposed. If they knew his name, there was a good chance they knew his face too.

Naruto's internal panic level was rising exponentially until a certain pink haired woman put her hand on his shoulder from behind.

"Naruto?" She said

He quickly spun around to see Sakura and Hiruzen staring at him. "Yeah" he said as evenly as he could.

"The young lady was calling your name, but you didn't respond" Hiruzen filled in.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sakura." He laughed and began rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand "I was so lost in thought I guess the world, just faded away."

Sakura looked him over. His skin looked a little pale, his pupils were dilated, and he was sweating and shaking a little. Sakura's inner medical profession analyzing him. She rationalized then signs and symptoms in her head and concluded he was nearing a panic attack from stress.

"Are you sure you're ok?" She asked leadingly.

"Oh Sakura" Naruto began feeling more like himself. He needed to salvage the situation as best as possible. "You worry too much," He said walking away from her.

For the first time since Sakura has known Naruto, she didn't believe him. What was on that TV that pulled him in so much? Why did he turn? Is there something I should know? The questions were piling up none had accompanying answers. She was perplexed but didn't want to show it. Maybe she needed to do a little investigating of her own, or better yet, talk to Sasuke.


	3. Chapter 3

3

Naruto drove slowly as he took Sakura back to the hospital. He noticed she was watching his every move; it made him sweat a little more than normal. Trying to break the tension he spoke.

"So, you never told me about your fiancé." He began. "What does he do? What's his name?"

Seeing that Naruto wanted to break the tension she allowed the conversation to flow. "Umm, there's not much to tell. His name is Sasuke. He works long hours as a detective. He's pretty quiet." She succinctly stated. She was still rethinking Naruto's actions earlier. He was acting weird and Naruto is the epitome of weird, but this was on a new level. She continued to brew her thoughts as she looked out of the window.

Naruto, on the other hand, was panicking even more internally. _"Sasuke? It can't be the same Sasuke from before? No, nope. Don't psych yourself out! He may just be another detective named Sasuke in this city too. No need to lose your marbles. That is unless…"_ He stopped himself when he heard Sakura sigh out loud.

"What's wrong?" He said

"I need to get a new set of scrubs and some files at my house. If I go back to the hospital and then go back I'll be late for work. Ugh! This sucks!" She said burying her face in her hands.

"I stop at your house then and from there we can go to the hospital. Problem solved." Naruto smiled at her. Sometimes he could be so helpful. "better yet," Naruto began again "You can drive. I know that you've been dying to drive it." He was poking fun at her, but he knew Sakura would take the bait if given the chance to.

"Really?" She quipped with an eyebrow raised "You'd let me drive your new toy?"

"Sure, I know how much you like fast cars."

"Well, you don't have to tell me twice." Sakura laughed. Inside, she knew she should be more cautious about him, but he was so easy to forgive and so charming she couldn't help _but_ enjoy his company. So, Naruto pulled over and they switched spots. Sakura adjusted her mirrors, steering wheel, and seat and before Naruto could properly buckle in she hit the gas pedal and the car took off snapping Naruto and Sakura's head back.

* * *

Sasuke sat in the study of his and Sakura's home. It was a nice single story ranch style home in a quiet neighborhood in northwest Konoha. He let Sakura pick out the house because if it was up to him, they'd live in a dark cave far away from other people, but she made him a better man and he wanted to give her the world for it.

The study faced the street and had big windows with plenty of visibility. Sasuke could see the street, the neighborhood children playing, the neighbors across the way mowing their lawn and grooming their white picket fences. It was a beautiful morning, but Sasuke couldn't enjoy it because of work. Although he wouldn't go and play with the kids or talk to the adults he'd sit on the porch, close his eyes, and listen to them all. It was quite atypical for the gloomy man, but thanks to Sakura, now he could do it without killing everyone.

He looked down again and began analyzing his files, again. There had to be some pattern to this, right? Did Naruto just go around randomly doing things? Was there a method to this madness? Was he even looking in the right place? AH!

He was _not_ looking in the right place. He wiggled the mouse of his desktop and logged on to the police officer portal using his badge number. He then began to look at the larceny reports, specifically vehicular theft. "Maybe Naruto had some sort of connection with car theft?" Sasuke thought to himself. He saw the rates went up steadily over the past four years, about the same time Sasuke had moved here from the last town he lived in when he was a vice cop. He combed through the records to see that only in the last five weeks reports of auto theft has increased exponentially. A thought occurred on Sasuke's face. He decided to superimpose the data graph of auto theft with bar graph reports of fraudulent charges within Konoha's city limits.

Sasuke's jaw hit the floor. They were a perfect match. But what did that mean? Was Naruto stealing cars and identities? No way, that's a lot of work for a man that was reported to be seen all over town in various women's beds. "What if he's not working alone?" Sasuke reasoned. Something had to give. There was no way he could be that swift. To be able to pull off this level of car theft and fraud. No something was NOT right. He had a few theories, but only one seemed to be the only logical theory. Naruto is a part of a team. That's the only way this much work could get done in one sitting. There were others, but who? For the briefest moment, his mind flashed the other people that were listed on the fraud list from the first Uchiha briefing. His eyes widened. It _was_ a group.

Sasuke grabbed a pen and began to write down as much of what he suspected as possible when he heard a loud car ripping around the block. Sasuke stopped writing to look up. The car was far away but sounded close by. He stood up from his seated position to get a better look. The neighborhood children stopped playing to look and the neighbors stopped mowing their lawns to look and see a sleek black car roll up to Sasuke and Sakura's house.

Sasuke didn't know this car or anyone who owned this car. The car hadn't pulled all the way up to the house so he couldn't run the license plates. Right as he became suspicious Sakura had hopped out of the car and smiling and walking toward the front door.

 _"That's strange, cause that's not her car and she was driving it."_ Sasuke said to himself.

Waltzing up to the door, Sakura inserted the key and called out "Honey, I'm home!" laughing all the while. Sasuke walked out of the study to greet her with a quizzical look on his face. Sakura, still too high from her experience didn't take not of his face. She only kissed him and began to walk to the back of the house to get her things for work. Sasuke slowly followed her, again, she didn't really take notice of it.

"I just came to get somethings for work," She said in a sing-song voice. "I need these," she said grabbing two sets of scrubs. "and this right here." She grabbed some socks and underwear. "and a little bit of this to the right." She grabbed the patient files off the desk in their bedroom followed by a tote bag to load it all into. Sasuke still following her a shell-shocked about his wife driving someone else nice, expensive, (and vaguely familiar) car made him apprehensive to ask.

After gathering all she needed she kissed her fiancé and said "Don't wait up! I have a 12-hour shift tonight." And was out the door. Sasuke walked back to the study to watch her leave. She walked over the car she so enjoyed driving and placed her bag in the trunk and waved to the neighbors who sheepishly waved back. She smiled, got in, and began to drive off.

* * *

Naruto casually sat in the front passenger seat as Sakura whipped the car around corner to corner. She smiling reaching corner to corner of her face. He knew this is what she needed to forget about being mad at him. He just laughed along with her as she pushed the large car to its limits. He watched closely at the roads he was being led down and made mental notes to himself, just in case he needed to recall the address for any future needs.

 _"Left on Stover St, Right on Tulane drive, Slight right onto Seeger Ln, one more right onto Dutchess Field Drive and here we are."_ He looked closely at the house number on the mailbox. _"11809 Dutchess Field Drive. This is Sakura and Sasuke's house, huh? Nice."_

Sakura had immediately kicked the car into park and got out. Naruto looked at his phone to see a text from Hinata. It read " _Hope you like how we got the news off your back boss. We'll await further instructions at Lee's."_ He smiled, things were going his way again.

At least for the time being. He looked up again and saw Sakura leaving her house and returning to the car. Naruto hadn't really inspected the exterior of the house. It was white with dark blue shutters. It had a two car garage on the left side a front door that was a slate grey color, and a large set of windows with a man starring out of them. Naruto instantly recognized him as Sasuke. All the color left his face. It _was_ the same guy from his last town. He couldn't believe it. Sakura was engaged to marry him.

He was at a loss for words too. Naruto and Sasuke had a complicated history and for the longest time, they hadn't talked. Another thought came to Naruto's mind, _"Can he see me?"_ he panicked a little. Then looked around the car only to remember the car had privacy glass tinted windows. He let out a little sigh. Safe for the moment, but only bad thoughts came to mind after that. _"Has Sakura told him about me?"_ he was, for the first time in a long time, truly scared. He could be caught. He could go to jail. He could lose all his money. He could lose his only friend, Sakura. Everyone else he associated with was a one night stand or a subordinate. He felt sick, but when he saw Sakura approaching the car with a goofy grin on her face he felt a little better. He quickly composed himself and smiled.

She threw he bag in the trunk and Naruto immediately spoke. "Let 'er rip!" Sakura smirked and the car peeled out of the street leaving dust and glares of envy in its wake.

* * *

Sasuke was watching from the window as the car took off, he then could see part of the license plate, however, what really stood out was the lettering on the massive black sedan "S-63-AMG". His eyes widened. That was the reported stolen car. _"How did she get her hands on it?"_ just as his head began to spin he heard his phone vibrate. Without reading the caller I.D. he accepted the call and spoke.

"Go for Sasuke."

"Hn, the black car that was missing was spotted nearby your neighborhood. We've set up a roadblock to get to it. Keep your eyes peeled." The voice belonged to Itachi, but the words are the only thing that mattered. Sasuke ended the call, shoved the phone in his pocket, and snatched the car keys off the hook. He needed to intercept Sakura before she got pulled over. This was a break in his case, but not the one he needed.

3-3


	4. Chapter 4

4

Sakura drove the car like she owned the streets. She made haste to the hospital like she was late, when she knew she wasn't, it was just a car that loved to be driven. She had the radio turned all the way up so her cellphone could not be heard over the sounds of the music. It was placed in the cupholders so that it could be readily accessible, but the screen was facing Naruto who saw the screen and silently read the name "Sasuke HONEYBOO" on the screen. While Sakura was focused on the road he took the phone and turned it off and slipped it into his pants pocket.

Sakura really looked like she was enjoying herself. The car's volume lowered and a light on the dash came on saying "Low fuel". Sakura sighed and slowed down just in time to get to a gas station. She got out and stretched her back.

"I'll take care of the gas Sakura, will you go grab me an energy drink and well call it even, eh?" He cooed to her. Smiling, she nodded yawned and wordlessly left go follow Naruto's request. She had parked the car in front of the gas station. Naruto started the car and moved it to the gas pumps in front of the station before he noticed there were pumps behind the station. He shrugged and drove the car to those pumps instead. He noticed a familiar car back there, it was an associate of his Kiba.

Naruto got out of the car and began to pump gas into the 20.7-gallon tank. This car was thirsty. As he set the pump to auto-fill he walked over he Kiba and spoke.

"So this is where you hide, huh man?" Naruto said jokingly. He gave the man a hug. As per usual, Kiba had his oversized dog with him. Sitting in the front seat.

Kiba laughed freely before responding "Well, you're not the only criminal in town are you?" The two men shared a laugh before they were silenced by the sound of distant sirens.

"Kiba," Naruto began putting a hand on his shoulder "I need your expertise." Kiba's smile widened.

"Anything for you man," Kiba replied.

* * *

"Have a great day!" She said over the shoulder to the gas station attendant.

"You too miss!" the woman replied.

She walked out front to see the black car she loved so much to be missing. In the distance, she heard police sirens and immediately thought of Sasuke. She looked left and right and couldn't find the car. Suddenly, a dark green Porsche Cayenne came from the right side of the gas station stopping right in front of her.

She squinted, attempting to see through the glass. Right as she did Naruto rolled down the window and spoke

"Get in" he said smiling his trademark grin.

"Where's the other car?" She asked then a look of shock hit her face "Naruto" she said as she got closer to the driver side window in a low voice she added "Did you steal this?!" her eyes wide.

Naruto shot her a puzzled look before laughing "No, my friend Kiba wanted to use my car. He's fueling up at the pumps behind the gas station. So, we switched." He kept laughing. Lucky for him, he has such a disarming laugh or else Sakura would have run away from the 'stolen car'.

She reluctantly took her place in the passenger seat, before Naruto rolled up the window and drove off. As he left he passed a police car with lights and sirens blaring. The windows were tinted so she couldn't see who was in it, but she was to read the number of the side of the car "KD-8769". She knew the KD part identified it was a Konoha Detective, but the number wasn't Sasuke's. He was "KD-8766" she sat back and began to sing along to the tune Naruto was playing over the speakers.

* * *

Kiba sighed as he adjusted the seats of this car. It was certainly lower than his SUV, but he'd make due. He turned left out of the gas station and floored it. Catching the attention of car KD-8766. The car drove out behind him and tried to match Kiba's speed. He laughed as he pet his dog holding the accelerator down.

"So that's how it's gonna be, huh? A good old fashioned police chase!" Kiba roared as he pets his oversized dog and kept driving. He made a left on a residential road and then a right. He was making a zig-zag pattern. So he could get to his phone. One he got his phone pulled out he looked back to make sure KD-8766 was still in pursuit. He smiled when he saw the car still in fact following him.

"I hope you can keep up!" Kiba said as he blasted rap music through the speakers. Picking his phone up again he scrolled through his contacts intermittently looking up to avoid oncoming cars and pedestrians. He scrolled until he found the name "Shino" he smirked as he made a hard right onto a dirt road. The cop car continued to follow but still couldn't match his speed.

"Shino's deli, how may I help you?" The man on the other end answered.

"Damnit Shino, I have no time for your games. I got a police car on my tail and I need some backup stat!" Kiba barked "I'm driving a black Mercedes-Benz S-63-AMG."

"What's the cop car's number?" Shino asked.

"KD-8766."

Shino whistled in reply, "A Konoha Detective? Man, you must be in some hot shit."

"JUST DO IT MAN!" Kiba yelled.

"Geeze alright, I'll triangulate your location from your cell and dispatch some riders your way. Standby."

Shino's keyboard clacked away heavily as he quickly obliged the man's request.

"Shino, I'm waiting!" Kiba said impatiently.

"I am too! Give me a damn moment. It's hard to do this on the fly. Normally people give me more notice!" Shino cried.

Kiba made a left down another dirt road. "I just made a left onto Old Hokage Lane and I'm headed north toward the ruins of the old Uchiha compound."

"MAKE A LEFT NOW!" Shino yelled over the phone. Kiba followed the instruction nearly throwing the car into a creek.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" Kiba was yelling now too.

"You have a cop on your tail, more than likely an Uchiha and you wanna lead to them to where they have a home-field advantage?" Shino asked.

"Good point. Now what? WHERE'S MY BACK UP!" He asked again.

"I SAID BE PATIENT!" Shino shot back.

"Ugh! Fine!" Kiba replied. Just as those words came to Kiba's mouth two black sedans cut off the police car. Matching S-63 AMGs joined Kiba as he drove at 94mph down this dirt road.

"Holy cow, Shino! That was quicker than your usual time." Kiba said elatedly.

"I am to please."

"Now how do I get the hell out of the woods I'd rather not scratch up this nice ass car."

"Follow the road until it ends," Shino said plainly.

"Ok, but one minor detail. I HAVE A COP ON MY ASS! I need him gone before anything else can happen."

"Just trust me. I dampened all outgoing radio communications within one mile of your area. He hasn't had a chance to contact anyone."

"See that it stays that way. So how do I lose him?"

"Working on that! Is your phone connected to the car's Bluetooth?"

"Yeah!"

"Good I'm sending directions to your phone and the car should be able to download them into your nav system."

"You are a Godsend Shino."

"I know. Is there anything else you need?"

"Nope, buddy you've done your job here."

"Thank you for calling Shino's deli, have a nice day!" and with that Shino ended the call.

Kiba's phone immediately began giving him navigational prompts through the car speakers and screen.

"I love that computer nerd." Kiba said under his breath.

Being the car in the lead, Kiba was able to see the dirt road connected to the main road and was guided to make a right along with the other cars. The other AMGs pulled to Kiba's left and right and rolled down their windows.

"Hinata? Neji? Well well, what a small world we live in." He said cockily to them. Neji rolled his eyes from his car on Kiba's right and Hinata spoke from her car on Kiba's left.

"You know you'd be lost without us. Yall ready to make this cop wish he wasn't a cop?" She said in a semi-sexy voice.

"You know it, babe," Neji replied.

"As long as you don't shoot the bastard," Kiba added.

Hinata frowned "What am I supposed to do with this then?" She said holding up a 9mm gun.

"PUT THAT AWAY!" Kiba yelled. "I don't do guns. I only move cars!"

"You're missing out then." Hinata laughed as she sped up Kiba and Neji followed suit.

* * *

"Here you are my friend." Naruto calmly said as he arrived at the hospital.

"Ah, thank you! You are a life-saver!" I seriously owe you.

"Its no thang, but a chicken-wang." He jokingly replied. "Oh, I put your bag with all your stuff in the back."

"Oh! Good thinking!" She said unbuckling her seatbelt. She hopped out of the vehicle to reach the liftgate.

As quick as he could be Naruto replaced the SIM card in the back of her phone with a duplicate card to match his. In essence, he could monitor her calls with her knowing. As she returned to the front of her car to say goodbye, he handed her phone back to her.

"Look what you almost left behind." He said smoothly.

"Once again Naruto you saved the day."

"I always try to." He said to her bowing his head for added effect. "OH! One more thing, I'll be going out of town for a lil so I guess I won't be here to save the day the rest of this week. Sorry."

"Well, that's ok. Where are you headed?"

"Kiri. There's a car there I want to get." He lied

"Ok, do you need me to take care of anything at your place?" She asked, however, this was not a genuine question. She wanted answers of her own.

Naruto thought for a moment "No, I don't think. Besides the only thing, there would be a cactus plant which doesn't need consistent watering." Once again Sakura's nagging feeling came back to her and this time she couldn't shake it.

"Ok, only thought I'd ask. Thanks for everything today. See ya when you get back. I'll more than likely be at this hell hole." She motioned to the hospital and Naruto laughed.

"Ok, bye!" he said as he slowly drove off.

 _"Yeah."_ Sakura said to herself _"Something ain't right."_

4-4

* * *

Author's Note: Hey all! Hope you all are enjoying this story. I think I'm going to upload 2 chapters at a time. I personally, don't like logging on for only ONE chapter at a time, so, eh, your welcome, lol.

I wanted to start to bring more the Konoha crew into this story and began to let you all in on the fact that Naruto may be wanted for fraud, but there is so much more the man is guilty of. I like Kiba for his bold mouth and my rendition of Hinata parallels the one from "The Last". To clarify, Neji and Hinata are not cousins in this story, but just married/ Sasuke and Naruto did know one another before meeting again in Konoha/ Sakura is a little bit of a ditz/ Tenten's part is coming and its gonna be pretty funny/ Anko of course makes and appearance, but I really want to use Tsunade in Anko's place, but we'll see. Chapter 5 will more than likely be Sasuke's POV at the car chase/ And lastly, Chapter 6 will evolve around Sakura digging up some dirt on her good old friend, Naruto. Thank you all for reading :D.


	5. Chapter 5

5

* * *

 _"Come on, come on, pick up the phone!"_ He thought as he drove aimlessly around the neighborhood. _"She couldn't have gotten too far ahead of me."_ Sasuke felt the air leave his lungs and not return in time before panic set in.

 _"What would happen if she was caught in this car? Does..she know it is stolen?"_ He stopped his car in the middle of the residential street. _"Does she know Naruto?"_ The thought was so paralyzing he did not realize that he was indeed in the middle of street halting all traffic around him.

Blinking back to reality as a car horn behind him sounded, he looked straight ahead to see the sedan in question fly by him." _Sakura!"_ and without thinking, he took off following her. He reached for his radio to call for back up but hesitated. _"I can't call backup on my future wife. Even if she is a potential criminal."_ Sasuke felt sick to call his lover a criminal. She wouldn't hurt a fly, would she? " _NO of course not_." He attempted to speed up before he realized the pedal was to the ground already. He couldn't catch up. More importantly, why wasn't she slowing down? Sasuke had too many questions on his mind to solely focus on driving his police car at 70 mph.

He followed the car left then right through this zig-zag pattern she seemed to be weaving. He also noticed she was driving as if she had some prior experience evading the police. " _Or maybe Naruto is driving and she's being held hostage in the trunk"_ Sasuke squashed that thought, Sakura was nice, but she holds a second-degree black belt in taekwondo; no one is beating her ass. _"It was a silly thought anyway, but why is she driving so crazily through the town? Is she headed back to Uchiha's old compound? I've never shown her this place how does she know about it?"_

The longer the drive continued the longer Sasuke ran in this line of questioning. After ten minutes of driving, he reached the conclusion that this was NOT Sakura driving this car. She may be _in_ the car, but she was not _driving_ the car, nevertheless, she'd be an accessory to the list of crimes committed if the police captain got a hold of her. He could be rather ruthless. Against his love for her, he finally reached for his radio to call for reinforcements only to find, the radio didn't transmit his call. He glanced down it for half a second wanting to keep up with the chase before him. " _This can't be happening. I need to be able to call for help. Geeze, there's never a cop around when you need one!_ "

Sasuke slowed down for half a second, just enough time for two matching Mercedes-Benz sedans matching the same general description as Sakura's Naruto's stolen vehicle. He was puzzled. First, the car doesn't slow down; then, his radio doesn't work; now, two matching cars are in front of him to throw him off? No, this was sabotage and he was sure of it. Someone within that car got back-up before he did. Someone as crafty as Naruto could get the job done before him.

He was furious. " _That idiot Naruto out did me? I ought to kill him and anyone he's supposedly working with!"_ These thoughts intensified as he watched the three cars lined up side by side ahead of him. He couldn't see any of the driver's faces because of the angle and the tinting on the windows. " _This IS an inside job._ _What isn't Naruto capable of?"_ Before he could jump to his next thought the cars approached another dirt road. Sasuke kept his eye on the car he wanted but was not ready for what happened next.

The two cars driven by the unknown subjects that just arrived slowed and spun around to face Sasuke's car. The road had narrowed leaving Sasuke with nowhere else to go. He slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the two cars. His car stopped leaving his nose to nose with these two cars. He looked up to at least see the driver's face's which he could not because their glass was so heavily tinted. Before he could react, the sunroofs on both vehicles opened and out popped Neji from the car on his right and Hinata from the car on his left, with 9mm guns. Hinata held two 9mm Glocks one in each hand; Neji held the same tool, but only one in his right hand.

Sasuke ducked into the footwell of his car as the Hyuuga duo shot out his tires. As soon as the shooting stopped Sasuke withdrew his firearm and shot at them from his driver side window. As Sasuke shot at the cars, he noticed the cars were bulletproofed. He sighed internally, they had come prepared and once again, Sasuke noted he was not. The Hyuuga's closed their sunroof and turned to leave. Neji taking the lead and Hinata following suit. As Hinata took off she rolled down her driver side window and looked back to shoot him, her gun hanging out the window. She slowed to take her aim and Sasuke took aim of her displayed arm. As if pre-orchestrated, Hinata and Sasuke shot at the same time, landing a bullet in each other's respective forearm. Hinata dropped her gun in the street as she drove off using her one good arm to steer; then proceeded to speed up to her husband. From his car Sasuke used his good arm to reach for his radio, it was a force of habit.

He was bleeding a lot, but after inspection, he called it a flesh wound. He made the call anyway.

"This is KD-8766. Shots fired at 56th and Federal Blvd. Send medic. Naruto Uzumaki is the suspect. Hyuuga's involved. I've been hit." He was livid, but injured and stranded in the middle of an empty intersection at midday; he was in no condition to follow them. He sat back in his seat, how was he going to explain this to the captain?

* * *

"YOU WHAT" Just as expected, this was the police captain yelling, quite loudly indeed at the intersection of 56th and Federal Blvd.

Sasuke closed his eyes sitting on the edge of the paramedic's open truck. Said paramedics were wrapping his arm in gauze after treating his wound. Sasuke opened his eyes to see a very angry captain in his face. Veins popping, arms crossed, and Sasuke could have sworn his iris turned red too. It was a very unpleasant sight.

"I lost them." He started equally annoyed. "They shot out my tires and shot me too." He said motioning to his injured arm. "and, the Hyuuga's are definitely involved." He added. Sasuke wouldn't dare throw Sakura's name in the hat. He couldn't risk her being arrested for being affiliated with Naruto antics before he got a chance to talk to her. She could indeed hold the piece of the puzzle that he so desperately needed to solve.

"So now what am I supposed to tell the press? They're already surrounding us!" Madara said speaking again. "You really believe the Hyuugas and Uzumaki are connected?"

"What other explanation is there, captain? How else could you account for the fact that my radio was out, two duplicate cars came to help the mystery driver escape, and the Hyuuga's themselves made an appearance? There is a connection between them."

"Where is your proof?" Fugaku chimed in.

"I don't have any yet, but there is a connection. I know it." Sasuke added.

Speaking on behalf of his brother "Maybe it would be best if I assisted my brother in cultivating the evidence to prove this theory." Itachi said it wasn't really a question as much as a statement.

Madara and Fugaku exchanged a look before both nodding. Madara spoke again "You have three hours to provide me with a thorough report of this incident in its relation to your fraud case. Three hours. Or I'm relieving you of duty."

Sasuke nodded in response. This was serious business. What started out as a "simple" case of fraud has now rolled into the starts of what could be a crime mob like Konoha has never seen before. As even _more_ questions entered Sasuke's mind, one thing became apparent: he needed to talk to his fiancé. He needed to get away from all the press and attention he was receiving. He could not risk pulling her into this mess.

Itachi poked Sasuke in his forehead. Sasuke looked up to see his brother standing over him as he held a look of uncertainty. His eyes did the talking _"Do you want to leave now?"_ Sasuke nodded back to communicate a "yes". He stood and began to walk toward Itachi's squad car, KD-8769. As Sasuke got in he frowned and looked over out of the window he needed someone to talk to, but could he really trust his brother to confide in? Before true implications of that thought could stew for long Itachi spoke

"What aren't you telling us? Your face was not as composed you probably intended." Itachi said as he started the car. He let the question hang in the air, no pressure to answer. Itachi slowly drove out of the crazy scene of the press and bullet shells.

"I have to trust you to hold this close to your vest." Sasuke said not looking at him, still staring out the window. "it's not something I'd like to admit because I couldn't deal with the reality of it." He said now looking at Itachi as he drove.

"Hn, I thought you trusted me already?" Itachi added dryly.

"You thought wrong, you didn't tell me you already apprehended Temari." Sasuke countered.

"Didn't think that was something I needed to brag about." Itachi rebuttaled. "Nevertheless, I promise to keep it silent. I give you my word."

Sasuke took a moment to contemplate his words carefully before he spoke. "Sakura." he started. "I think she's somehow twisted up in this mess. I can't be sure, but I .. I saw her driving the stolen car in question, but I don't know if she was the one escaping me. I just don't know anything anymore." He was mentally exhausted. Was his future wife a member of this crime ring? Naruto's nefarious crime gang? He needed a break, from everyone and everything. He was mad but determined to get to the bottom of it and Sakura could very well hold that key.

"I guess we need to make a stop to see Sakura then?" Itachi piqued. Sasuke only nodded to indicate he felt the same way.

* * *

5-5


	6. Chapter 6

6

* * *

Sakura was exhausted. By the time she punched in, her attending physician was already barking commands.

"Hurano!" The big busty woman yelled "Where have you been? I needed your help earlier. Your fellow physicians have been picking up the slack for your tardiness. One more strike and I'll kick you out of this program even if you are my star pupil, is that understood?"

"Yes, Dr. Senju." The pinkette replied. "What cases do we have?" She wanted to start work right away; the sooner she started working, the sooner she'd be able to get Naruto off of her mind.

"I'm sending you into the pit since you were late." Dr. Senju stated handing her a stack of at least fifteen manila folders.

"I understand." Sakura sighed. The pit was slang for the undesirable part of the ED. The woman sighed and took the elevator down to the first floor holding her new caseload. It sucks being in the pit, but she earned it. Although she wasn't late to work per her contracts standards, she was late according to her attending's standards.

Sakura leaned back against the wall of the elevator reviewing the events of her day. She couldn't understand why Naruto had switched cars or why there were police sirens in her neighborhood or why he had changed the channel in the jewelry shop. As the elevator descended to the first floor her eye opened at the thought she had in her head. _"I left Sasuke's watch in the other car! Shoot!"_ she mentally cursed. It was going to be a long shift.

 _"I should text Naruto to see if he can get that back for me!"_ She thought as the elevator doors opened. She was greeted with the scene of a chaotic hospital floor with children and adults coughing, sneezing, and puking all in the waiting room. The ED nurses running around like chicken's without heads to clean up the mess, pages over the loudspeaker for various doctors to come to various rooms for codes, and in the middle of it all, she saw Shizune, the charge nurse.

"Shizune!" What is going on here?" Sakura asked I bit overwhelmed.

"We've been swamped like this for hours! I can't seem to organize the nurses for shit!" Shizune said in a shrill voice. "Ugh! I need Dr. Tsunade here! She always gets things under control!"

"Well," Sakura began "You have me. I'm assigned to the pit today, so I'll start right away." Sakura said as she began to walk away. Before she got five feet from her first exam room, she walked back to the nurses' station to Shizune. "And get housekeeping down here too." Shizune nodded and picked up the phone.

Sakura took a deep breath and walked into her first patient's room. She was rather surprised to see an old friend of hers, Tenten.

"Hey, girl!" Tenten began, loud as always. "You won't believe what happened this time." Sakura externally put on a slight smile and internally sighed. _"Tenten always has the wildest stories."_

"So you know how I love weapons, right? Turns out they don't love me back! I dropped a mace on my foot a couple of hours ago and now its all swollen!" She exclaimed.

Sakura now took notice that one of her shoes was off and grabbed a set of gloves off the wall dispenser.

"A mace..?" Sakura said in disbelief. "You dropped a mace on your foot?"

Tenten nodded eagerly. "You're not joking are you?" Sakura deadpanned.

Tenten shook her head no and Sakura sighed again, internally.

"Please remove your sock." Sakura said as professionally as she could without showing disgust and for the next ten minutes she inspected, palpated, and assessed Tenten's foot before writing a script for physical therapy, Vicodin, and follow up visit with her family doc.

"Girl, I knew I could count on you! I'll see you next week!" Tenten said as she left the exam room. Sakura kicked up an eybrow _"I didn't make plans to see her next week._ Sigh. _She must be anticipating ANOTHER injury."_ Sakura got up and filled out the paper work for Tenten in her paper chart before walking back to the nurses station and putting the folder in the correct bin on the countertop.

Sighing Sakura walked away from the nurses station. She was so tired and had barely been an hour into her twelve hour shift. She yawned and took her stethoscope out of her pocket and placed on top of the manila folders in the shape of a heart. She smiled lightly and decided she needed a little fresh air. She looked for Shizune to tell her she was going to go outside, but when she didn't see her, she just left. She exited the ED through the employee's only exit. Sakura was then greeted by a woman with midnight blue colored hair sitting and panting on the ground holding her forearm. She was alone and bleeding. Sakura's medical instincts came out as she called out to the lady and began to walk over to her.

"Ma'am are you ok? Do you need help" She questioned.

"Well, yeah, I'm sure blood belongs inside the body and not on the concrete. So the answer is yes I do need help." She sarcastically seethed, Sakura attributed the remark to the pain she was probably feeling.

"Let's get you inside-" She began

"NO!" The woman protested. "I can't go inside, I don't have medical insurance and I don't want anyone looking down on me for it."

"Well," Sakura countered, "I'll go get some help." She began to walk away from the woman, when the mysterious woman grabbed Sakura's wrist from her seated position.

"Please…." She was pleading "Please don't leave me. I just don't want to leave." As the woman finished her sentence she used her bloodied arm to grab something from the small of her back, a 9mm gun and pulled Sakura to her lowered height pressing the gun into her abdomen. The look on the woman's face had changed and Sakura new this was bad news. As this all transpired, Sakura was unaware of the van that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and now parked very close to them. In fact, the van blocked the space between the women and the entry door back into the hospital. Sakura had been let into a trap.

"Look," Sakura said with a shaky voice "I don't know what you want or need, but please let me go and I won't tell anyone about this I promise."

The woman now looked like she was going to laugh, but the pain in her arm prevented a full laugh from coming out. "Listen, bitch. You do what we say and no one gets hurt." Sakura looked mortified. "Get up." The mystery woman said.

"We?" Sakura said slowly rising. The woman used the wall and her grasp on Sakura to pull her way up to standing position too. Using the gun in her injured hand, she motioned toward the van. It was an all white van with Ino's flowers written on the side. Sakura looked back at the woman with the gun and back the van.

Before the woman could speak the back door of the van opened and out came a man short blue hair and a sleeveless purple shirt on. He had one sharp tooth hanging out of his mouth and a devious look on his face. Instead of having a gun, he had a small sword attached to his hip and an even larger one strapped to his back.

"Your chariot awaits, Dr." He motioned to the van as if it were an actual chariot. The woman with the gun, let go of Sakura's arm for a split second only to shove her _hard_ toward the truck. The force of the push made fly right into the mystery man's arms as he mericilessly picked her up and proceeded to push her into the van.

Sakura opened her mouth with the intent to scream, but before that action could be intiated, she heard the hammer of a gun cock. "Keep that pretty little mouth shut or else, I'll have to blow a hole right threw it." She said in a low voice.

"Geeze, Hinata, You sure know how to pack on the charm." The blue haird man said.

"Stop bickering you two, we've got to move." Came a voice from up front, it was a man with long dark chocolate hair.

"You're no fun either, Neji" The man countered earning a glare from the driver. With that last remark the doors to the van were shut, locked, and the van calmly departed from the hospital. After making it fifty feet from the hospital, Neji slammed on the gas pedal creating a screeching sound from the van's tires as he fled the scene.

* * *

Inside, the hospital, Sasuke and Itachi walked in to see Dr. Senju, Sakura's "boss".

"Hey….you." Sasuke said disrespectfully in to woman's direction. Her back was turned as she discussing patient information with a nurse. The woman turned to see Sasuke, whom she had met before and held nothing, but feelings of rage for, and scoffed returning to her conversation with the nurse.

Annoyed, Sasuke began to walk toward the woman before being stopped by this brother. Wordlessly, Itachi used his eyes to communicate to his brother

 _"Calm down, or I will calm you."_ Itachi's eyes read.

Sasuke stared at him for a moment as if to challenge his older brother before he looked away stood still. Itachi instead approached the Dr. She was less upset to see this man whom she'd never met before, but if he was associated with Sasuke he must be no good either. She ended her conversation with the nurse and turned to watch the man approach her. When he was within five feet she spoke.

"You look like Sasuke, therefore you must be bringing trouble like Sasuke."

Itachi took note of her ample bosom much too long because Tsunade waved her left hand in front of her chest to re-orient him back to reality causing Itachi to cough before speaking.

"You are in error, Sasuke looks like me. I am the older one of us two."

"Hm, just as well. What do you two want. No doubt you're here looking for someone?" She asked plainly.

"My name is Itachi Uchiha with the KPD, I am looking for Sakura Hurano. I understand she works with you?"

"Yes she does. Why is she wanted?"

"That is not your concern, doctor."

"It is if she's taken away from the patients here during her duty shift."

"Where is she." It wasn't a question. His glare was met by hers and she finally closed her eyes in a girlish manner before opening them and replying.

"If you didn't share blood with him, I'd jump your bones, bet on that…She's in the pit."

Itachi raised a brow

"You're a smart boy, I'm sure you can figure out where that's at." She said leaving the scene.

Itachi lowered his brow and began to walk away from the scene too.

"She's in the ED, let's move." Itachi said to Sasuke.

Sasuke who'd been pulled back into his negative thoughts about his future wife, was feeling a little more than apprehensive about seeing her. He should have questioned her at the house BEFORE she'd left. He had a mouth full of questions, but couldn't speak to her back then, he couldn't afford to make that mistake again. He mindlessly followed Itachi to the elevator down to the ED his mind still churning the whole ride there.

"Worry won't help you." Itachi said. Sasuke heard him, but didn't care to acknowledge it. He didn't have time for his brothers cryptic remarks or ever-knowing wisdom. Sakura could be a gang member for all he knew; that was worth a little worry.

The elevator doors opened and Sasuke shot out of them like a bat out of hell. He walked straight up to the nurses station having been here so often for police work, he knew exactly where to go, besides, Konoha General Hospital wasn't that big. Sasuke and Itachi looked left and right for the charge nurse who was nowhere to be found. Something however, caught Sasuke's eye: Sakura stethoscope.

"Look." He said to his brother walking over to the far left side of the desk. "She's here, somewhere."

"How do you know its hers?" Itachi questioned, always cautious.

"Because I bought her this exact one as a proposal gift along with the ring. It hasn't been released yet and she's the only one that got one pre-production." Sasuke explained. "It's not like her to leave it laying about."

"Well, she had the intent on coming back to it." Itachi said "Look, she bent it into a heart shape. Maybe she's in the bathroom." He added.

The hectic scene in the ED made it hard for Sasuke to find a nurse that wasn't literally running to care for the patients strewn about the department. He buried his head in his hands as Itachi closed his eyes trying to think in this crazy atmosphere.

Finally fed up after a few minutes Sasuke walked to the nearest trauma bay and opened the curtains wide startling the staff and patient who throwing up in a trash can. Itachi watched from the nurses station as Sasuke began to make demands to the two nurses in the bay.

"Tell me where doctor Hurano is! NOW!" He yelled.

"We don't know! You're not supposed to be over here! LEAVE NOW! Or I'll call the police."

"I am the police!" Sasuke said anger burning in his eyes.

"GET OUT!" The other nurse yelled. Angrily, Sasuke obliged and walked past Itachi toward to employee's only exit. Curiously, Itachi followed him. He watched Sasuke's back as they passed through the door to the outside. Sasuke's head turned up toward the sky with his eyes shut, soaking up the sun. Truth be told, his brain was fried. It's an awful feeling to think that woman you love is not the person you thought. When in fact, the woman you love, is twisted up this conspiracy or group that has been working underground to undermine the entire city. _Allegedly._ Sasuke was on the edge of his sanity. Before the words the composed even more questions formed in his head, he opened his eyes and looked down. He could feel Itachi behind him probably staring at him, but it didn't matter.

As he inspected the ground he saw a puddle of blood and walked to it. Itachi following suit, they both kneeled in unison over the puddle. It looked fresh, Sasuke slowly looked up at Itachi who opened his mouth to speak, more than likely to prevent his brother from creating another twisted theory, but was halted by Sasuke's hand.

"Sakura." He said in a low voice. The wind blew bringing a breeze with it. In the distance, a vehicle's screeching tires could be heard.

* * *

6-6

Didn't see that coming did you?


	7. Chapter 7

7

* * *

As Naruto left the hospital he drove slowly thinking everything over.

"Sakura was indeed in a relationship with Sasuke. Sasuke was the vice cop in the last town that almost caught me. Sasuke more than likely knows I'm here, BUT there's a good chance Sasuke doesn't know that I know that he knows that I know that he's on to me. ARRGH! F this." Naruto's stress level was through the roof! No one should have to worry like this daily.

He pulled the green SUV over into a shopping center parking lot turned the car off. He got and walked to the trunk of the car and lifted the floor mat to reveal a plethora of guns and other paraphernalia. He sifted through it all until he found what he was looking for: a phone. He grabbed it and dialed a number and waited for someone to answer shutting the liftgate of the SUV.

"Kiba!" He exclaimed. "What's the word?"

"Hey man! I'm just chilling at Lee's safehouse. With your car and all, did you know that it was stolen?" He asked with a hint of playfulness in his voice.

"Yeah, I did. How'd that cop business turn out?"

"You haven't seen the news?" Kiba quipped.

"No…Should I? Which reminds me, we need to get in touch with Shino."

"Well let's just say, that cop- sorry- detective, won't think to mess with you again."

Naruto had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Kiba…" He asked leadingly.

"He's not dead, although Hinata did put a hole in him."

"SHE WHAT?" Naruto yelled in the middle of the parking lot drawing the attention of some shoppers.

"Yeah, just a small one, my inside mole says he's still up and about."

"Where Hinata now?"

"She went to get see a doc. She told me she didn't like what he had to say so she went somewhere else for medical treatment."

"Why would she need medical treatment?"

"She was shot too. Man, you really need to watch the news."

"Shut up, I'll watch it when I'm back at the safehouse. How bad were her injuries?"

"Minor. She's bleeding a lil..well…a lot, but she's a trooper, man. She'll be fine."

Naruto let out a sigh. "We need to have a house meeting. My name is being affiliated with our gun loving friends." It's time for a change. Gather the rest of the group, I'm on my way back to the safehouse. Do. Not. Leave. Is that clear?"

"…yeah? Besides I don't have anywhere else to go!" At that remark, Naruto hung up. Hinata could be so wild sometimes. He knew she only did these things to get on his good side, but sometimes she was too much to handle, her husband even agrees.

Naruto got back into the green Cayenne and began to drive toward the safe house.

* * *

"Sit back bitch, or I'll shove this gun in your face again and I just might just pull the trigger," Hinata spoke.

"Really though, who dyes their hair pink?" The man with the shark tooth asked.

"A woman you didn't like? That surprises me, Suigetsu." Neij remarked from behind the wheel.

"I mean its cute, but you could really do better next time, honey." Suigetsu added with a smile.

"Do you just hit on everything with legs?" Hinata asked annoyed.

"Just about." He said casting a sexy glance at Hinata. In response, Hinata pointed the gun a Suigetsu's face then moved it down to his crotch.

"Say that to me again OR give that look and you won't have a desire to flirt anymore," Hinata replied sternly.

"ok, ok!" Suigetsu held his hands up. "I'll stop."

Meanwhile, Sakura was sitting on the floor of this van that had no back seats with a blindfold on and gag in her mouth. The man she could now identify as Suigetsu had tied her arms and legs up so she had even less control over her body than before. Every time the van bucked or surged, she lurched forward to stabilize herself, but Hinata didn't tolerate that as she was sitting on the floor next to her prisoner.

A song rang out in the car as Neji drove.

"What is that?" Neji asked

"That's my phone," Hinata said storing the gun between her legs face Sakura. "Oh, it's the boss man! Shut up!...Hello?" There was a moment of silence. "No.." Hinata was speaking in fragmented segments. "But I just thought. Ugh! FINE!" More silence. "A CODE ORANGE! That's going to involve seeing-!" More silence. "Yes, sir. We will be there soon."

The van remained silent after she hung up. Neji looked back in the rearview mirror before he spoke. "Is everything ok?"

"No! Boss man is upset that I shot that Konoha detective." Hinata said.

Although it could not be seen, Sakura's eye widened _"What if she shot…"_

Hinata continued "Apparently, boss man and the detective I shot 'known each other'?" She said using air quotes to emphasize her sarcasm. "Anyway, we're being called for a house meeting and….we're on orange alert."

"Orange alert?" Suigetsu questioned

"Yeah it just means, we've got to keep a low profile AND…" She neglected to finish as Neji would fill the man in.

"And" Neji began. "After that doctor back there does her job we have to get rid of her."

The silence of that statement hung in the van. Blind to the outside world, Sakura imagined they were staring at her with guns drawn. She wasn't ready to do any of this.

"Did he say the detective's name?" Neji asked.

"Yeah," Hinata said "Sanosuke…or…Sanmuke…it was something along those lines. He must be important to the boss man."

"Yeah, I guess." Suigetsu added shrugging.

In her silence, Sakura knew what she meant to say and all she knew was some 'boss man' thought Sasuke was important and got mad when he was shot. _"Oh God, Sasuke was shot. Is he alive. Or..?"_ The thought made Sakura panic she began to wiggle and squirm around the van.

"What did I just tell your bitch-ass? Stay still!" Hinata said in an annoyed voice.

"We're here. Bring the doctor." Neji said as the car smoothly stopped.

"Thank you, sir, for not killing us in the car." Suigetsu sarcastically remarked, Neji ignored him.

From behind her, Sakura could hear the rear doors opening as Suigetsu approached her. "Ok my pink lady, I'm going to grab your arm and guide you out of the van. Don't kick. Don't struggle. I have a trained assassin watching you with a gun pointed at you, ok?" Sakura immediately nodded.

"Oh," Hinata began "I'm the trained assassin he spoke over."

Sakura nodded again making Hinata let out a morbid chuckle.

Following the threatening instructions, she was given Sakura complied. She was let out of the van onto a gravel driveway for about ten feet. She could feel the heat of the sun beat down on her neck, but it wasn't as intense as the sun would be at midday, so it must midafternoon. Had she really been in the car that long? She continued to walk talking baby steps due to her current bondage. The man guiding her told her to stop for a second, so she did. Ahead of her, she heard a series of knocks on a door.

"I'm coming you assholes. Hold on." She heard from what she assumed was the person on the other side of the door. "Hey, Hinata." The man said smoothly.

"I've been waiting for a reason to shoot this gun off dork," Hinata added pushing her way past Kiba entering the house followed by the rest of the boarding party. Sakura, being a part of this boarding party, stumbled into the house still blind, but getting better at navigating.

"Ok, bring her over here," Hinata said motioning to a desk.

Neji brought Sakura along with him as he guided her into her seat. She sat down and felt the strap holding her gag in place removed and the blindfold removed. Sakura had her eyes shut until she heard a car pull up to the house.

Ever so slowly, Sakura opened her eyes to see herself in a very beautiful house. It was large and open with a very modern feel to it. Above her, she saw a large curving staircase in the corner of the living room, to her left was a wall of large windows with evening sunlight shining into the room. A large ceiling fan on a down-rod in the massive room. It seemed like she was at someone's house. She looked around at eye level to the woman she could now identify as Hinata, a man named Neji, one named Kiba, a large dog, and the creepy Suigetsu/shark tooth man all sitting on the massive sectional couch watching TV with the subtitles on. In the far left corner of this nice house, she saw the kitchen with another man in. She squinted to see the man and before she could speak she heard a voice.

"Shino! Where's Lee? He owes me money!" Kiba yelled.

"Probably in the safe. You know how much he loves money." Shino said calmly.

 _"So he's Shino."_ Sakura thought to herself. She was making a catalog of the criminals in the room just in case she was rescued by… _"Sasuke."_ She felt tears well in her eyes, was he dead? How was he? Did Hinata actually kill him?

"Oh princess, don't go spewing those tears in this house. I don't want to hear your mouth." Hinata said annoyance obvious in her voice. Before Sakura had a chance to respond, the front door opened and a face she hadn't expected to see waltz right through the door.

 _"Naruto"_

* * *

I thought I told you not to do anything too risky, Hinata?" Naruto yelled. Neji closed his eyes as if he knew this was coming.

"Oh relax I only shot that cop cause he shot back at us! It was self-defense boss man!" Hinata added crossing her arms in a childish manner.

 _"Wait, NARUTO is the boss man they talked to? He gave the order to kill me?"_ Sakura looked down as her tears began to silently fall as she let the full implications of the situation sink in.

"When I say keep a low profile. I mean it. You keep this up and I'll-" Naruto's words stopped causing Sakura to look up to meet his gaze. Naruto's eyes widened at the sight of her

"Sakura," He said breathlessly. "No, no, this can't be," Naruto said aloud. "Hinata you kidnapped her?" He said pointing at Sakura.

"Yeah, I said I wanted a second opinion of this GSW," Hinata said.

"ARGH!" he exclaimed. Everyone else in the house fell silent as he panicked. Never had they seen the cool boss man panic before. After a moment he spoke.

"You shot a cop." He said slowly, "Then kidnapped his fiancé." He paused "Then, you bring her back here." Naruto reached to the small of his back and withdrew a gun pointing the barrel of the gun under her chin. "I ought to pull this fucking trigger right now." The room fell silent, Neji opened his eyes and everyone was as still as they could be. The air in the room was so heavy and still that it seemed as if it was impossible to move. After a few moments, Naruto released the gun from her chin.

Hinata, who had shut her eyes during the whole ordeal, opened her teary gray eyes to meet cold and unfriendly cerulean blue ones.

In a low and strong voice, Naruto spoke to her "You're on thin ice." He paused "If you ever do something like this again I WILL pull the trigger." He grabbed her forearm with his empty and brought her over to Sakura. "Apologize." Hinata looked at Naruto and back to the woman at the desk and then back to Naruto. Sensing she was uneasy, Naruto lifted arm to a 90-degree angle pointing the barrel at the window. Without a second thought, he shot the window, causing everyone in the room to visibly flinch except Naruto.

Suddenly, Sakura saw three other people emerge at the top of the staircase. A man with a bowl cut and really think eyebrows; a heavyset man with long brown hair; and, much to Sakura's chagrin, Tenten. The three of them looked as shocked as everyone else in the room below them. They silently stood and watched to interaction play out as Naruto spoke again.

"This time it's a window with glass shattering. Next time," he slid closer to her now holding the gun near her head "It's your skull with blood splattering. Your choice sweetheart."

"I'm sorry miss." Hinata bowed with her apology tears falling while she does this.

"Sakura, her name is Sakura," Naruto added in a stern voice.

"I'm sorry miss Sakura. I did not know who you are before I did and said all those things." Hinata was now on her knees and Naruto now had the gun pointing at the back of her head as she was on the ground facing the floor.

"that's good enough for me." Sakura chimed in. Trying to defuse the tension in the room.

"No, no it's not, but she'll make it up to you," Naruto said not taking his eyes off of Hinata's head. "Isn't that right, Hinata?"

"Yes boss, I will," Hinata said sobbing.

"I think that's good enough," Neji added standing up. Seeing his wife in such a position was rather upsetting to the man.

Naruto turned his head to see Neji standing. Neji's cold slate gray eye met with the fierce blue eyes. The two men held a glare into each other's eyes before Neji looked away. Naruto continued to stare at the man while holding a gun toward the man's wife's head. He needed to make a point: he would NOT tolerate any further deviations from his orders.

"I will decide when enough is enough," Naruto said in a loud voice. Neji only sat down as he did not want to challenge Naruto's authority. Oddly enough, Neji feared the blond-haired man and at this moment, so did Sakura.

"Naurto.." Sakura began. "I…I think she's been through enough." She added meekly. "She has a wound, and I need to treat it." She began to regain her confidence with Naruto around.

From the kitchen, Shino spoke. "She needs medical attention." Lowering the gun to his side, Naruto began to speak again.

"Fine, but if anyone steps out of line, disobeys my orders, or even so much as leaves a hair out of place on this woman's head; I will kill you myself. Is that understood?" Naruto boomed. The entire room was still silent from his interaction with Hinata.

Sakura looked at the top of the staircase to see the three people nodding along with everyone else in the living room nodding. She was surprised Naruto had this many person under his command. If this was under better circumstances, she'd be impressed.

Naruto lowered the trained gun and put it back to its former location, the small of his back. He then used his foot to lightly kick Hinata signaling her to go back to the couch before he began to speak.

"Now," He began. "I initially called for a code orange, but since the circumstances have changed, we need to be getting out of town. It seems the Konoha PD has caught onto us. There is a lot of work to do before we depart, but we WILL get it done before we leave. I want this to be a clean operation. No more kidnapping, car theft, fraud, or robbery without my express consent, ok?" Everyone except Sakura nodded.

Sakura was completely confused with the situation, Naruto. Harmless old Naruto was a mob boss? A boss? The man who still had trouble adding and needed his fingers to perform simple arithmetic was a crime boss? This couldn't be right. Naruto continued speaking pulling Sakura's attention to his voice.

"First off, Shino." He started again

"Yes, sir?" Shino answered

"I need your help in taking down the press reports. The KPD detectives have some information on me and more than likely, most of you. I need you to make sure that broadcast never makes it to the public in ANY medium. Make it your top priority, get started immediately." Shino nodded and began to walk toward to staircase to carryout Naruto's orders.

"Kiba and Choji. I need you to get us some clean cars to exit the city. Nothing stolen that could raise alarm. ASAP." Naruto continued.

"Neji. Take care of our current cars, I want them gone and cleaned inside and out. No DNA traces, clear the nav systems, and get all of our crap out of it. Make it look good, too." Neji looked at his wife who was now seated beside him, and kissed her on the forehead before leaving the room.

"Tenten, weapons." She nodded in response. "I can't be on the run without heat. Anything you can get your hands on. From your RELIABLE sources, nothing fancy and new I want them by tomorrow night."

Surprising Sakura, Naruto now turned to Sakura and spoke. "I need you to treat her injuries." He said motioning to Hinata with his left hand. "Your help would be gratefully appreciated." And with that, he walked away to another part of the house. His tone was curt and rough, the anger almost palpable to everyone who saw him right now.

 _This can't be the same Naruto I know, right? He was usually so goofy and fun! Now he's here and so..? I don't know how to describe it. It's strange."_ Sakura thought in her mind was Hinata came closer to her with red puffy eyes.

"I'm going to need a med kit." Sakura said to Hinata

"There's…there's…a..uh…med kit in the…kitchen…I'll go get it." Hinata stuttered. Sakura noted her stuttering as the woman meekly went over to the kitchen to retrieve it.

Sakura's mind kept reviewing everything that happened in the last hour. It wasn't real to her. She's been kidnapped by Naruto's goons and now is seeing the intricate workings of Naruto in serious mode. It also struck her that he did lie to her about having to leave to see a car in Kiri. But then again, the thought struck her, maybe this was his plan all along to leave, but now her being here added a kink in the plans. She also thought back to the conversation in the van about her being "killed after her usefulness ended." But once again the confusion was present because she also heard Naruto say she was not to be harmed. She also let her mind drift to thoughts of Sasuke.

Her mind was still trying to unravel the mess she was twisted up in. Before she knew it, she found herself speaking.

"I'm done." She replied flatly. "Don't mess it up." Sakura felt sorry for the woman, but also felt bad that she was in pain. It was in her job to relieve suffering and pain, felt little to no need to help this woman, she did put a gun in her face quite a few times, too.

The gun-happy woman was a little stunned when Sakura grabbed her hands and spoke again. "You're going to be ok sweetheart. You'll get through this." Hinata saw true meaning in her words; she didn't know how to take it but went along with it.

"Thank…you." The blue haired woman replied.

Naruto returned to the room and broke up the two women by speaking. "Hinata." He said in a stern tone.

"Yes..boss?" She squeaked.

"I want you to help Neji," Naruto said approaching the woman. Hinata stood to meet his erect figure as he reached a hand out to cup her face and stare into her eyes. His stare was hard and lacked the compassion Sakura had known them to have. He spoke again still holding her face "Don't mess this up." Hinata felt the coolness of metal press against her abdomen, this was a threat- he meant it. Naruto lowered the gun and put it back in its former location.

"Yes, sir." She said softly before turning on her heels and heading out of the front door to Neji. Naruto watched her like a hawk knowing she'd feel his stare bore into her as motivation. After she was out of sight Naruto turned to Sakura.

"We need to talk."

* * *

7-7

* * *

A lot has happened here, but you gotta keep up and re-read as necessary, believe it or not, NOWnwe're're into the 'meat & potatoes' of the story.


	8. Chapter 8

8

* * *

"We need to talk?" Sakura echoed. Her face was starting to turn red and she stood throwing her hands on the desk.

Naruto looked down at her scrunched hands on the desk lifting an eyebrow at the action. "I didn't mean to drag you into this mess, it just happened."

"It just happened?" She questioned? "You could have told me the truth!"

"Really, Sakura, really? Does seem like a logical plan? To tell a DETECTIVE'S WIFE?!" He said his anger and voice rising.

"You didn't trust me?"

"It's not about trust! It's the nature of my work! I don't think YOU understood that!" Naruto added.

Silence fell in the room.

"Naruto, you could have trusted me." She added

"I'm a felon being pursued by your future husband! I can't be your friend!" He remarked. "I KILL people like your fiancé as a part of my job!" Naruto yelled now.

Silence fell on the room again. Sakura held her breath for too long before she spoke. She looked down before she spoke.

"Are you going to have me killed."

"No…As long as you don't give me a reason." He said giving her steel eyes.

"Naruto…"

"Sakura, I need to protect myself and my people. They depend on me and I need them."

Tears began to fall from her eyes. "You mean, there's a chance I won't make it to marry the man I love?"

"The man you love, will want my head on stick once he finds out you're in my custody." He stopped to let his mind clear "I can't risk that."

"Naruto-" She couldn't even finish her sentence before she was overwhelmed by tears.

Naruto turned her head away from and yelled a name "CHOJI!" He turned back to face them.

"I'm assigning you a bodyguard. Choji is a good man who will take care of you."

"I don't need looking after. I can find the exit on my own."

"You're not going anywhere." He locked his with hers. As this action occurred and Choji reappeared.

Choji spoke, "Yes sir?"

"I'm assigning you to her watch Sakura. She is not to leave your sight. I mean it." He ordered.

"Yes sir," Choji replied.

"Take her upstairs, my room." He continued.

"Naruto, I'm not staying here!" She countered.

"No, no way. If you try to leave. . . you will be shot." Naruto added.

"The hell you will" She said. Snapping, Naruto commanded Choji who withdrew a gun from his ankle holster, with lightning speed, and pointed it at Sakura an emotionless look on his face.

The silence returned to the room.

"Naruto." Sakura said with steel lacing her voice. She was two arm lengths away from his locking eyes with him. This really was not the Naruto she was used to.

"Sakura," Naruto began locking her eyes still, "Don't force my hand. I don't want to give that order, but I will if I have to." Choji's face held an empty look as if he didn't care about the woman he was near killing.

As the room was filled with tension and threats, a man entered the room from the back of the house. He was taller and older. His hair was blue and he had a cigarette hanging from his lips. The man had a set of brown eyes that nearly look black. Sakura found the man to be attractive in a rugged manner.

"What the hell is this?" He asked a smirk present on his face.

Not breaking eye contact with Sakura, Choji still holding the gun a Sakura's face. "Nothing I can't handle, Asuma. You're late."

"I do my thing."

"Do you have my documents?"

"Yes sir."

"Where's Kakashi?"

"He'll be here."

Sakura backed down and opened her mouth "I'm going to allow this for now, but you need to let me talk to, Sasuke."

Naruto cracked a smirk, he held his hand up to signal a stop sign to Choji. Slowly, Choji complied and lowered the weapon. His look of expressionlessness remained. Reluctantly, Sakura walked to the man's side and frowned. Naruto only nodded to say he agreed to Sakura's terms.

"Who's the bitch, boss?" Asuma asked now lighting another cigarette.

Glaring in returning to the older man, the blonde man spoke, "Sakura" He said turning to face Asuma "And she is NOT a bitch. You treat her with the same respect you give me. Understood?"

Asuma straightened his slacked posture seeing that Naruto meant business. "My apologies, sir."

Naruto looked away from one man to face another. "I want you to ensure her safety. Nothing can happen to her." Naruto paused to sigh before speaking again. "Take her upstairs." And with that, Choji, motioned toward the staircase to usher Sakura up the stairs. Sakura made eye contact with Naruto and he briefly smiled. It reminded her of the old Naruto, but she knew in her mind, nothing was the same. Naruto watched with intent as she left his sight to ascend the staircase, he had no intention of letting that happen, but her couldn't kill her. He didn't have the heart to.

After she left, Naruto let out a small sigh. "Asuma" Naruto said to the man as he sat on the couch, "I need your _special_ skills." Asuma lifted the corner of his mouth.

"Don't you always, boss?" Asuma added.

Naruto let off a small chuckle. "I need you to gather as much information as you can on Detective Sasuke Uchiha. His address is 11809 Dutchess Field Drive. That includes his family perceived weaknesses and all the goodies." Asuma nodded. "I'll even throw in something extra for your lady." Asuma nodded before speaking

"I can do that, boss, but what about Kakashi?" Asuma questioned.

"Don't you worry, I have something special in mind for him too.


End file.
